Let's Brew - 1934 Cairnes Double Stout

Yet another Cairnes recipe today. Well, I need to somehow justify all the time I've been spending going  through their brewing records.

Unlike Single Stout, which had seen its gravity whittles away over the years, Double Stout was the same strength as in 1923. Remaining at the same strength as Guinness Extra Stout.

Though there have been some changes to the recipe. Namely, the addition of flaked maize and a type of sugar. Not exactly sure what type of sugar it was, as it’s only described as “Saccharum”. It’s probably a kind of invert. Though I can’t be sure. I’ve guessed No. 2 invert.

The base malt was mostly made from Irish barley. Though 10% was made from Californian barley.

The hops are very different from in 1923., when they were all English. Here, they’re a split between Oregon and Styrian. The hopping rate is about the same at around 8 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt.  However, as the types of hops were higher in alpha acid, the calculated bitterness level is quite a bit higher 53 IBU.
 

1934 Cairnes Double Stout
pale malt	10.00 lb	80.65%
roast barley	1.00 lb	8.06%
flaked maize	0.50 lb	4.03%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.75 lb	6.05%
caramel 2000 SRM	0.15 lb	1.21%
Cluster 120 mins	1.25 oz
Cluster 60 mins	0.50 oz
Styrian Goldings 60 mins	0.50 oz
Styrian Goldings 30 mins	1.00 oz
OG	1055
FG	1014
ABV	5.42
Apparent attenuation	74.55%
IBU	53
SRM	34
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	60.5º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1084 Irish ale

 

Beer Guide to the 1970s

I've decided to take the plunge and add a guide to all the breweries and beers of the 1970s to my book "Keg!". I'm still not convinced how many people will find this interesting, but what the hell. I'm going to run with it.

This is a small excerpt from the "B" section. 

 

Boddington
Manchester,
Greater Manchester.
Founded:    1778
Closed:        2005
Tied houses:    280

The largest of Manchester’s independent breweries, Boddington managed to fight off a takeover attempt by Allied breweries. The tied estate was spread across Lancashire and Cheshire and into a corner of Derbyshire. Their distinctively pale Bitter had somewhat of a cult following. Bought by Whitbread in 1989, for a while their Bitter was heavily promoted in “smooth” form.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1035	well hopped
Mild	Mild	draught	1031	Dark Mild medium sweet
Best Mild	Mild	draught	1033	medium dark
Strong Ale	Strong Ale	draught	1060	mellow and smooth
Light Ale	Pale Ale	bottled		approaching a Lager in character
Strong Ale	Strong Ale	bottled	1060
Nut Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled		Sweet
Extra Stout	Stout	bottled		Sweet Stout

Border
Wrexham,
Clwyd.
Founded:    
Closed:        1984
Tied houses:    170

Border was the largest independent brewery in North Wales.  They were notable for their large range of Mild Ales. Their pubs were mostly either side of the North Wales border with England. Though they did extend as far north as Chester and east to Staffordshire. They were bought by Marston in 1984.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1034.3	hoppy
Light Mild	Mild	draught		more like a Bitter
Dark Mild	Mild	draught	1031.6	medium-strength
Exhibition Mild	Mild	draught	1032.2	stronger
Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled
Exhibition	Pale Ale	bottled		a stronger Pale Ale
Royal Wrexham Ale	Barley Wine	bottled
Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled
Strong Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled

 

Brain
Cardiff,
Wales.
Founded:    1713
Closed:        still open
Tied houses:    100

A decent-sized independent brewery in South Wales. Their tied estate was located in South Wales, stretching as far west as Swansea.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1035.3	well balanced
SA	Pale Ale	draught	1040.6	full bodied and malty
Red Dragon Draught Dark	Mild	draught	1035	Dark Mild
Tudor Light	Pale Ale	keg
Gold Dragon	Pale Ale	keg		stronger
Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled
IPA	IPA	bottled		stronger
Amber Ale	Pale Ale	bottled		strongest
Extra Stout	Stout	bottled	1043	medium sweet
Srtong Ale	Strong Ale	bottled

Analysing Cairnes brewing records

The Cairnes records are ones where I'm glad that I have a long set. Both in terms of records spanning a long period and lots of photos for each year.

An unusual feature of the records is that there are pre-printed headers for specific ingredients. Which was probably really handy when the records were first used. Only problem is, that they had multiple books printed up and, due to the horizontal format, each book lasted for many years. Sometimes more than ten years. And, inevitably, the ingredients used changed over time. Making some of the header irrelevant. With the columns used for different ingredients.

Now, sometimes, the printed header was crossed out and the correct ingredient pencilled in. But only occasionally. Which is why it's handy to have lots of photos. Worst is the column headed "Pat. Malt". It's still there on the forms in the 1940s: several decades after they switched to roast barley.

There's only really one way to tell which ingredients were being used. That's by looking at the monthly totals. Which indicate how much of each ingredient was used in the previous month and the year to date. That's the way I know Cairnes were definitely using roast barley and not patent malt.

Also pre-printed are the headings for the type of beer. Which also ended up being incorrect through time. And where, again, they would sometimes (but not always) cross out a beer type and scribble in another.

"X" crossed out and "2d" pencilled in.

It's so much fun.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1914 Cairnes Single Stout

By far Cairnes most popular beer was Single Stout. Accounting for at least 50% of what they brewed.

With a gravity of just 1050º, it’s really more like a Porter than a Stout. At least by the standards of the day. For example, in 1914 Whitbread Porter had an OG of 1052º, slightly higher than this “Stout”.

The grist is pretty simple. There’s just the one malt and two adjuncts. The amount of roast barley is quite limited at just 6.5% of the total. Which leaves the colour relatively pale. Only around the shade of Dark Mild.

Two types of suage were used. Glucose acting as a malt substitute. And caramel for colour. Without which this would be far too pale for the style.

Two thirds of the hops were Oregon from the 1912 harvest. The remainder were Belgian, simply described as “old”. Presumably used as they were cheap, costing just 83 shillings per hundredweight, While the Oregons cost 135 shillings. 

1914 Cairnes Single Stout
pale malt	8.00 lb	74.21%
roast barley	0.75 lb	6.96%
flaked maize	1.00 lb	9.28%
glucose	1.00 lb	9.28%
caramel 2000 SRM	0.03 lb	0.28%
Cluster 120 mins	1.00 oz
Cluster 60 mins	1.00 oz
Strisselspalt 30 mins	1.00 oz
OG	1050
FG	1014
ABV	4.76
Apparent attenuation	72.00%
IBU	49
SRM	20
Mash at	154º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	58º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1084 Irish ale

Beers I miss (part three a) Younger's No. 3

I should really have done this beer as part three, shouldn't I? Missed a trick there.

My relationship with No. 3 goes back a long way. To even before I could llegally drink. Which is more than 50 years ago.

Back in the early 1970s, a recipe for a clone of No. 3, which at the time was unavailable. Me and my brother brewed it up and it turned out pretty well. For an extract beerm, that is. Which is a sign that we made it very early in our homebrewing career, before we switched to all malt.

No. 3 was a bit of an oddity. A Scotch Ale which was much weaker than most examples of the style. And was quite often sold on draught, unlike the stronger versions. Let's take a look into its history a little.

In the first half of the 19th century, William Younger brewed an array of Strong Scotch Ales. Which, as was Scottish tradition, were given shilling designations. This referred to the wholesale price of the beer per hogshead. Their gravities ranged from 1076 for 60 Shilling to 1141 for 140 Shilling.

For some inexplicable reason, Younger introduced a new range of Strong Ales, numbers from No. 1 to No. 4, ranging in gravity from 1077 to 1099. Perhaps they were trying to emulate the Strong Ales of some Burton brewers, such as Bass. Oddly, they continued to brew a rnage to strong Shilling Ales. Over the years, the range of numbered Ales was whittled down, until only No. 1 and No. 3 remained.

Scottish & Newcastle revived No. 3. at the end of the 1970s. Which is how I came to encounter in the wild. In the early 1980s, I was living on Burley Road in Leeds. Me and some of my mates became members of the Burley Road Liberal Club, Basically, just so we could play snooker. The club was tied to Scottish & Newcastle and had a couple of their bbeers on handpump: Younger's IPA and No. 3.

Being a Mild drinker, I naturally plumped for the No. 3. Which was sort of like a strong Mild. Dark and not too hoppy. A rathher pleasant drink to go with a few frames of snooker.

A couple of years later, when I was working in the centre of London, me and my colleagues used to hang out at an S & N pub around the corner from the office. Usually, at least twice at lunchtime and twice after work each work. Just like Burley Road Liberal Club, it had Younger's IPA and No. 3 on cask. I'm sure you can guess which I usually drank. And which worked wonders for my darts game.

When did I last drink Younger's No. 3? It's a long time. It could possiblly be as long ago as when I last worked in London. Which was October 1985. I might have had the odd pint after that. But they haven't registered in my memory.

Of course, S & N discontinued No. 3 again. I'm not sure exactly when. I think in the 1990s. Looking back on it - and having seen earlier brewing records - I suspect that No. 3 was IPA with caramel added. At least in its final incarnation.
 

What I missed

the first time I went through the Cairnes records. Was something very important, in terms of a peculiarity of Irish brewing.

It's not unusual for me to either miss or misinterpret things in brewing records. Hopefully, I spot my mistake not too far in. Because then I need to go back and fix all the table entries that I've already transcribed. Not the most fun work. Not that transcribing brewing records is ever something I would describe as fun.

On the face of it, it appears that every batch of Single Stout had a small quantity of what looks like Double Stout parti-gyled with it. And I mean a small amount. For example, there might be 194 barrels of Single Stout and just 14 barrels of "Double Stout".

But what's odd, is that there isn't a full fermentation record for the "Double Stout". Just one or two entrie. While there is a full record for Single Stout, right up to racking. Why would that be?

Eventually I twigged. There's a reason there isn't a full fermentation record. Because that wort wasn't fully fermented. At least not on its own. I'm pretty sure that this is "heading". One of the elements of Irish Stout. It's a strong wort in a high degree of fermentation which was blended in at racking or packaging time. It's effectively a sort of Kräusen.

Based on the amount of Single Stout and heading brewed, about 7% was added. Which would have increased the effective OG a little, as well as providing condition. It's the equivalent of the primings added in England, except it was in the form of wort rather than a sugar solution.

This is the relevant section of a brewing record. Where the Single Stout, with an OG of 1039 in the first row and the heading, with an OG of 1050, is the second.

Looking at it now, I've noticed something else. There's a gap below where it says "Shift to 6". It looks to me as if they're using the dropping system and the "shift" is when they drop from the round to the sttling square.

Cairnes Single Stout hops

Over to the hops. At the start of the period, Cairnes used exclusively foreign hops in their Single Stout. Either from Oregon or Belgium. That all changed in the middle of the year.

When English hops appear. There were still Oregon hops, but they were getting older as they all remained from the 1915 harvest. The reason is obvious: imports of American hops dried up. Once the war was over, large quantities of fresher American hops came into the mix. Though there were still some English hops used.

Let’s see how Fullers use of hops compared.

There’s a similar pattern to at Cairnes, where new foreign hops disappear in 1916. Though, in this case, rather than American hops they were Belgian and Germany. After that, it’s all English hops until after war’s end. When lots of French and American hops appear.

“MK”, obviously, stands for Mid-Kent. Not really sure what “B” means. I can’t think of a type of hops that starts with the letter “B”, other than Belgian.

Cairnes Single Stout hops 1914 - 1923
Date	Year	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3	hop 4
1st Jan	1914	Oregon 1912	Belgium old
1st Sep	1914	Oregon 1913	Oregon no date	Oregon 1912
7th Jan	1915	Oregon 1913	Oregon 1913	Oregon 1907
2nd Oct	1916	Oregon 1915	English 1915	Poperinge 1915
3rd May	1917	Oregon 1915	English 1916
7th Jun	1917	Oregon 1915	English 1916
1st Nov	1917	Oregon 1915	English 1916
3rd Jan	1918	Oregon 1915	English 1916
2nd May	1918	Oregon 1915	English 1916
3rd Oct	1918	Oregon 1915	English 1916	English 1917
3rd Feb	1919	Oregon 1915	English 1917
2nd Oct	1919	English 1917	English 1918	Pacifics no date
1st Jan	1920	Oregon 1918	English 1917	English 1918	old Pacifics
15th Apr	1920	Oregon 1918	English 1918
4th Oct	1920	Oregon 1918	Oregon 1919	English 1919
3rd Oct	1921	Oregon 1918	Oregon 1919	English 1919	English 1920
2nd Feb	1922	Sonoma 1920	English 1917	English 1920
1st Jan	1923	English 1921	English 1921	English 1921
Sources:
Cairnes brewing records held at the Guinness archives, document numbers GDB/SUB/0022 and GDB/BR17/1257.

 

Fullers Porter hops 1914 - 1925
Date	Year	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3	hop 4	hop 5
18th Nov	1914	MK 1913	Poperinge 1913	Hallertau 1912	Farnham 1913	Tolhurst 1914
17th Feb	1915	Poperinge 1913	B 1913	MK 1913	Tolhurst 1913
2nd Jun	1916	Tolhurst 1915	MK 1914	Farnham 1914
4th Aug	1916	Tolhurst 1915	MK 1914	B 1914	old hops
12th Apr	1917	MK 1915	B 1915
9th Aug	1917	No. 2 B 1915	Tolhurst 1916	MK 1916
5th Jan	1918	MK 1916	Tolhuirst 1916
19th Apr	1918	Farnham 1916	MK 1916
14th Jan	1919	MK 1917	Poperinge 1914
10th Feb	1920	Alsace 1917	Alsace 1919	Sonoma 1916	Oregon
16th Jun	1925	Pacifics 1922	English 1923	English 1924
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.

 

Let's Brew - 1970 Watneys Red Barrel

A couple of days ago someone asked me if I'd ever published a recipe of Watneys Red Barrel. I knew I'd written one and assumed that I'd posted it at some point. It turns out that I hadn't. So here you go.

I couldn’t miss this iconic beer. Even if it’s iconic for all the wrong reasons. Gaining a reputation as the classic terrible beer. But was it intrinsically awful?

The recipe doesn’t look much different to other Bitters of the day. It’s over 90% malt, which most of its rivals weren’t. And it’s only malt and sugar. There are no adjuncts. There was a little Dixon’s enzymic malt, which I’ve replaced with more base malt.

The hopping looks fine, too: Fuggles for bittering and Goldings for aroma. And enough to leave a decent degree of bitterness. Dry-hopped, too. Though that was with some form of hop concentrate.

Overall, it looks like a pretty decent beer. That’s before it was pasteurised. Derek Prentice told me that the Truman’s beers of this period always tasted stale because of the heavy pasteurisation. Perhaps that was also the case with Red Barrel. 

1970 Watneys Red Barrel
pale malt	7.50 lb	87.41%
crystal malt 60 L	0.33 lb	3.85%
No. 3 invert sugar	0.50 lb	5.83%
malt extract	0.25 lb	2.91%
Fuggles 105 min	1.75 oz
Goldings 15 min	0.75 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.125 oz
OG	1039.2
FG	1006
ABV	4.39
Apparent attenuation	84.69%
IBU	32
SRM	8
Mash at	158º F
Sparge at	175º F
Boil time	75 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	WLP023 Burton Ale

Beers I miss (part three): Braník 12° Dark

I was lucky enough to visit Prague several times in the 1980s. When Czechoslovakia had the highest general beer quality of anywhere in the world. I looked hard, but was unable to find any bad beer. Though a couple of beers really stood out, both of them dark. U Fleku 14° and Braník 12° Dark.

As a hardened Mild drinker, Czechoslovakia's dark beers naturally drew my attention. Though they could be difficult to track down. Most pubs only sold a single type of beer. And that was usually a pale Lager. Either 10° or 12°. Only the occasional pub plumped for a dark option. They did exist, though. And I managed to hunt some of them down.

There was a small one-room place on one of the narrow lanes leading to Charles bridge. An unassuming pub, unlike the larger beer halls. And it was there that I got my first taste of the the wonderful Braník 12° Dark. Unike some of Czechoslovakia's dark Lagers it wasn't particularly sweet. Though it was packed with malt flavours, topped off with a reasonable level of hop bitterness. And very drinkable, as all good Czech beers are. It reminded me of a really good Dark Mild. Though somewhat stronger.

"Pijte Branícke Pivo!" is the title of a Hasek (the author of "The Good Soldier Svejk") story. The title comes from a slogan attached to brewery, meaning "Drink Branik beer!" The story itself is about a travelling down the Vltava by boat. Where they go past the brewery. For me, it was just another reason to drink Branik beer.

Prague's breweries were privatised in a particularly stupid way. In the communist period, breweries were grouped together on a regional basis. All the breweries in Prague were in one such group. Which was sold off as one entity. Weirdly, ending up in the hands of Bass Charrington. Who would want to own multiple breweries in one city? Inevitably, all but Staropramen, the largets, were closed.

Braník closed in 2006. Which was pretty annoying. Even more annoying when I recently discovered that the plant had been completely modernised just a little earlier.

How I would love to return to the mid-1980s and drink a delicious Braník 12° Dark served by air pressure in a pub with stinky toilets.

Cairnes Single Stout sugars 1914 - 1923

Moving on to the sugars, this is where Fullers and Cairnes really diverge. At the start of the war, Cairnes Single Stout had a little under 9% sugar, in the form of glucose. In 1916, that disappears in 1916, and for the rest of the war there’s no sugar at all. Sugar does reappear in 1920, but only in the form of caramel.

Things at Fullers were way, way more complicated. Over the war years, they employed seven different types of sugar. Though in any single brew there were never more than three.

The most popular sugars were glucose and something called Special Dark. I’m guessing that the latter was some sort of dark invert sugar. The quantity used was pretty high at the start and the end of the period covered by the table. I assume restrictions on the supply of sugar was responsible for the drastic reduction in the quantity during the war years.

At Fullers, the proportion of sugar in the grist was far higher than at Cairnes. Starting at over 25%. Even in the most difficult later war years, the amount never fell lower than 6.5%. And for most of the time was well over 10%.

Fullers also used way more caramel, varying between 3% and 7.5%. While at Cairnes it went from zero to a maximum of 2%.

While at Cairnes, even at the start of the war, sugar was less than 10% of the grist. From 1916 on, that was reduced to zero. And, other than caramel, no sugar was used after WW I. 

Cairnes Single Stout grists 1914 - 1923
Date	Year	pale malt	roast barley	flaked maize	glucose	caramel
1st Jan	1914	74.45%	6.50%	9.93%	8.82%	0.30%
1st Sep	1914	70.03%	7.74%	13.34%	8.89%
7th Jan	1915	71.37%	7.22%	12.69%	8.72%
2nd Oct	1916	79.62%	7.11%	13.27%
3rd May	1917	79.62%	7.11%	13.27%
7th Jun	1917	87.83%	6.84%	5.32%
1st Nov	1917	87.83%	6.84%	5.32%
3rd Jan	1918	86.70%	6.88%	6.42%
2nd May	1918	91.17%	6.74%	2.10%
3rd Oct	1918	93.33%	6.67%
3rd Feb	1919	93.33%	6.67%
2nd Oct	1919	85.42%	7.46%	7.12%
1st Jan	1920	89.05%	7.66%	3.30%
15th Apr	1920	87.33%	7.37%	5.29%
4th Oct	1920	81.76%	8.54%	9.28%		0.41%
3rd Oct	1921	95.33%	3.91%			0.76%
2nd Feb	1922	76.04%	10.18%	12.64%		1.13%
1st Jan	1923	89.36%	8.51%			2.13%
Sources:
Cairnes brewing records held at the Guinness archives, document numbers GDB/SUB/0022 and GDB/BR17/1257.

Fullers Porter sugars 1914 - 1925
Date	Year	glucose	invert	Special Dark	cane sugar	Dark Trivert	Porteris	caramel	total sugar
18th Nov	1914	11.34%		12.60%				3.30%	27.25%
17th Feb	1915	3.83%				9.56%		2.91%	16.30%
2nd Jun	1916						15.84%	6.15%	21.99%
4th Aug	1916			4.90%				3.85%	8.75%
12th Apr	1917	3.44%		6.89%				3.59%	13.92%
9th Aug	1917			1.25%	1.25%			3.92%	6.42%
5th Jan	1918			2.35%	2.35%			3.69%	8.39%
19th Apr	1918	8.59%		4.30%	8.59%			4.42%	25.90%
14th Jan	1919	5.69%	5.69%					7.57%	18.94%
10th Feb	1920				6.92%			4.89%	11.81%
16th Jun	1925			13.50%				4.80%	18.31%
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.